Study on Quality Difference Due to Packing Medium, Transportation, Storage in Coffee Green Bean Distribution Process

Abstract

　The quality of green coffee beans is affected by various steps in the manufacturing process, including cultivation, refinement, packaging, shipping, and storage. This study focused on the changes in parameters, including packaging material, shipping method, and storage during the distribution process of green coffee beans from the country of origin to Japan. Standard commercial coffee (CO) beans are packaged in gunny sack (GS), shipped in a dry container (DC), and stored in a normal temperature warehouse (NTW). However, the flavor of CO coffee beans often deteriorates. Thus, measures must be undertaken to ensure the high quality of specialty coffee (SP) beans. In the present study, Columbian SP coffee beans were divided into vacuum packaging (VP) and gunny suck (GS), shipped either in a reefer container (RC) or dry container (DC), and stored in a constant temperature warehouse (15℃) or normal temperature warehouse. The sensory evaluation results obtained by analyzing the changes in parameters such as total lipid content, acid value and pH on arrival after6and12months helped in determining appropriate methods for the quality maintenance of green coffee beans. These results suggest that green coffee beans enclosed in VP, imported in a RC, and stored at CTW showed minimal decrease in lipid content, and minimal increases in acid values and lower pH values as compared to those packaged in gunny sack, shipped in a DC, and stored at NTW. Significant changes in parameters and their positive correlation with sensory evaluation results were achieved. Thus, this study demonstrated the importance of packaging, shipping, and storage in an environment unaffected by oxygen, temperature and humidity for proper quality maintenance of green coffee beans.